Need Opinions

As an outspoken lover of hardtails myself, I hear you on that. But Nearly any full suspension bike (all things equal) will be much more forgiving on not just your back, but also it insulates your whole body.

This was never more clear to me than when doing a 6 hour solo on chunky terrain, or a 24 hour event on chunky terrain. On a hardtail I was pretty shot by the end, but even a short travel XC full suspension was leagues more comfortable, and by the end I still felt fresh, not whole body tired like before. All you have to do is sit there and pedal. So easy.

My opinion:
I don't think you need a long travel bike to be more comfortable, nearly any Trail bike with 120-150mm of rear travel will work equally well and be more efficient pedaling. Which brings me to the E-bike. Sounds like you are a perfect candidate for a full suspension E-bike. I admit I'm not a fan personally, and they're illegal here largely, but frankly I would have zero problems with someone in your situation riding an E-bike.

What's the budget? I ask because a good aluminum FS bike can be had for $2.5-3k, but an E-bike will be twice that.

*OneSpeed* said:

As an outspoken lover of hardtails myself, I hear you on that. But Nearly any full suspension bike (all things equal) will be much more forgiving on not just your back, but also it insulates your whole body.

This was never more clear to me than when doing a 6 hour solo on chunky terrain, or a 24 hour event on chunky terrain. On a hardtail I was pretty shot by the end, but even a short travel XC full suspension was leagues more comfortable, and by the end I still felt fresh, not whole body tired like before. All you have to do is sit there and pedal. So easy.

My opinion:
I don't think you need a long travel bike to be more comfortable, nearly any Trail bike with 120-150mm of rear travel will work equally well and be more efficient pedaling. Which brings me to the E-bike. Sounds like you are a perfect candidate for a full suspension E-bike. I admit I'm not a fan personally, and they're illegal here largely, but frankly I would have zero problems with someone in your situation riding an E-bike.

What's the budget? I ask because a good aluminum FS bike can be had for $2.5-3k, but an E-bike will be twice that.

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Yeah it's been a difficult challenge. I've ridden multiple FS bikes in the past and they all tested my health and endurance. I could not find the Goldilocks bike that works best for my health problems. The same shop that has the Nomad in stock also has a nice Bronson MX too. I put that up on my list. I was thinking possibly spending close to $5k because that places me right in the middle of pretty good FS bikes and some of the entry level e-bikes out there. I am scoping out some of the cheaper priced ebikes as well. I also have the idea of looking at a cheaper ebike or FS just to test the waters and see how I hold up so I'm glad you brought that up too.

A lot of the cheaper entry level FS bikes are sold out in my area though! I would have to order a 2-3k e-bike because we don't have much out here on the market. On a side note, I did find a local who is selling a Kona Remote for $3k but it has 800+ miles on it. I'm 50/50 on that one!

The only hard part is that there aren't many areas I can ride an e-bike legally and without grief. E-bike advocacy is picking up the pace here in WA state which is nice. The crazy part is that I have at least 5-6 MTB parks within a 45 min radius of my house. None allow e-bikes yet.

I actually switched from mountain bikes to dirt bikes which surprisingly works well for me seeing the bike does 75 percent of the work. I really want to get back into mountain biking so I can keep up with the cross training skills during my dirt bike off season. I have been riding a Peloton since summer and I can handle it pretty well going at my own pace. My Peloton riding gives me hope that I can get back on a MTB soon.

Battery,
First and foremost...Thank you for your service sir. I too have lower back issues when I ride and a FS bike makes worlds of difference to me. Like was said, I don't think you need a long travel FS bike, a moderate travel trail bike would be great. 120-140mm travel would help immensely. I have FS bikes ranging from 100mm to 160mm travel and the 130-140 range seems like the sweet spot for me. I have an Orbea Rise FS e-bike that I absolutely love. It's 150-140 travel and perfect. It really saves the knees after a long hammer day on the analog bike. There are many FS e-bikes in your price range. A lot of them used to be carbon only (higher price) but some are now making the same model in aluminum for less money. As far as riding an e-bike on unapproved trails, my opinion is that a 100% disabled vet can ride anywhere he *&^% well wants to. I think you'd be hard pressed to find any law enforcement officer that would hassle you once you explain your condition and why you ride an e-bike. I know a lot of folks will call me out on this, but to those that will, please go put your butt on the line for our country and come back broken and then we can talk about it. Hooah brother!

I'll preface by saying that I don't have major back issues - so not sure this is relevant, but for what it's worth... I still have a hardtail, although my son rides it now. It was my main bike until about 4.5 years ago. I would notice that after long rides, my lower back was pretty darn tight on that bike. I bought a FS bike about 4.5 years ago. I thought that FS bikes were really tuned for traction and not comfort, and bought it more for the updated geometry than anything else. But I was surprised by how much more comfortable my back was after long rides on the FS bike compared to the hardtail. So I think you're heading in the right direction with FS.

Whether you want long travel or a shorter travel bike, I'm not sure. Bronson and Nomad are both awesome bikes - so I think you'll be happy with either of those. If you're having knee issues, an ebike might also be worth checking out.

As a former avid MTBer and dirt biker with a severely debilitating autoimmune disorder, I would say to only consider an eMTB for this reason- you're more likely to ride it. If you're having an iffy day you're not going to go out and ride a conventional bike, but with a 'moped' you have the confidence that if your body acts up unexpectedly you'll still make it back to your truck. Another partially disabled friend and I made great use of our Turbo Levos last season, and I'm hoping to do it again this year.
I stopped dirtbiking because it wasn't worth loading up, gearing up and possibly being winded in half and hour. My solution was to get an ADV bike which allows a different style of riding- mostly sitting down, enjoying heated grips and windshield, on forest service roads. I can hop on the nearest highway if I need an easy way home, and the weight of the machine take up vibrations and impacts far better than my dirt bikes with the best custom suspension available. (While riding less technical terrain of course)
And for the record, as someone that sells bicycles, I try my best to steer able-bodied buyers towards non-assisted bicycles. I think the e-mtb trend is getting out of hand way too fast, and legislation and infrastructure needs to catch up.

BicyclesOnMain said:

As a former avid MTBer and dirt biker with a severely debilitating autoimmune disorder, I would say to only consider an eMTB for this reason- you're more likely to ride it. If you're having an iffy day you're not going to go out and ride a conventional bike, but with a 'moped' you have the confidence that if your body acts up unexpectedly you'll still make it back to your truck. Another partially disabled friend and I made great use of our Turbo Levos last season, and I'm hoping to do it again this year.
I stopped dirtbiking because it wasn't worth loading up, gearing up and possibly being winded in half and hour. My solution was to get an ADV bike which allows a different style of riding- mostly sitting down, enjoying heated grips and windshield, on forest service roads. I can hop on the nearest highway if I need an easy way home, and the weight of the machine take up vibrations and impacts far better than my dirt bikes with the best custom suspension available. (While riding less technical terrain of course)
And for the record, as someone that sells bicycles, I try my best to steer able-bodied buyers towards non-assisted bicycles. I think the e-mtb trend is getting out of hand way too fast, and legislation and infrastructure needs to catch up.

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I actually have a Triumph Scrambler as my fire road beast. I do have some limitations when it comes to my dirt bike but I want to give this thing an honest shot before I decide what to do with it. Thanks for you opinion on ebikes too. I actually found out that WA legislation passed an interesting ADA law back in Summer 2021. If an ebiker has an ADA pass displayed in their car, they are legally allowed to ride an ebike on any nonpaved surface where regular bikes can ride. I was surprised by this one! I don't have an ADA pass but I plan on talking with my doctor to see if I'm eligible to receive one. Around 8 years ago, my doctor said no. I'm going to ask my new doc to evaluate and see if I can get one. I'm not doing it for ebike reasons though. I just need one because I have a hard time walking as it is

Here's my super fun Scrambler!

Well I pulled the trigger yesterday and picked up a 2021 yellow Levo base model. Went on my first ride in 1 year and handled it pretty well! I noticed that if I run 2 bars, it feels like a normal mountain bike. 3 bars gives me good assistance to pedal. Running 4 full bars is just flat out lazy and makes a climb feel like a joke. I rode mostly with 3 bars and I may just do that from now on. It gives me enough of a challenge to pedal without it being too easy. My HR gets into the 160s with 3 bars. My knee pains were mostly gone and my back didn't bother me until I was almost done. Night and day difference over my previous hardtail!

My first upgrade is a FasstMTB flexx bar which may help with my back problems. I might upgrade the fork and shock later on down the road when I am done complaining about the quality lol!

slapheadmofo said:

2-You're a disabled vet - you are allowed to use an e-bike in many places where they usually aren't allowed per the ADA.

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I don't think the ADA has anything to do with it. I think it has to do with land managers understanding that this kind of rider isn't likely to be the kind of rider being a jackass to other trail users and causing other problems. Land managers who have some flexibility built into the way they run things are going to be more likely to be okay with this, but some land managers don't have that kind of flexibility and won't allow it any way you present it. Also, from the experience of a guy I know who had a heart transplant and rode an emtb for awhile during his recovery, his approach was to talk to the land managers FIRST. That way they knew about him and that he wouldn't be the sort of rider giving other people problems with poor trail manners.

BicyclesOnMain said:

And for the record, as someone that sells bicycles, I try my best to steer able-bodied buyers towards non-assisted bicycles. I think the e-mtb trend is getting out of hand way too fast, and legislation and infrastructure needs to catch up.

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Kudos for that. I generally see two types of emtb riders. The first type are folks like Battery, who might be disabled, but might not be disabled and are rather just elderly or are non-riders and want the assistance just to get around. The second type are your fit, able-bodied sort who use an emtb because they get to the top of the hill faster and with less effort so they can cram more downhill runs into their ride. These are the sorts I've had negative trail interactions with (on the climbs). Thankfully there's now a bike park in my area that caters to the emtb crowd and I haven't had one of those interactions in awhile.

Battery said:

Hi everyone!
I have the itch to mountain bike again after taking a year off. I'm 100 percent disabled veteran and rode mountain bikes for roughly 7 years. I quit last year because my body could not handle it. I could only ride 2 miles before I had to quit due to back pains. I used to ride upwards near 10-15 miles on my bike. I was riding a Salsa Timberjack back then. I have dual knee pains, back pains, arthritis, chronic pain syndrome, and a whole bunch of other fun problems. I wouldn't be surprised that a hardtail may have aggravated my back during my rides but hot damn they are so fun to ride!

Right now, I have a couple options and looking for thoughts and opinions.

Option 1 - high travel bike! My local shop has a SC Nomad and in my head, maybe a little more suspension travel could work for me. Has anyone found a high travel bike like a Nomad to be beneficial for their ride while dealing with a bunch of health conditions?

Option 2 - an ebike! Having some power assist could help me out as well but I'm unsure. Not all trails in my area open to e-bikes but that doesn't stop people from riding anyways. I did ride an e-gravel bike well over a year ago and had a great time. It took some stress off my knees but the rest of my body still had to deal with riding on fire roads and zero suspension.

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Well, I don't think enduro-long-travel is necessary here, but FS and good suspension quality can definitely ease things. I even went to an FS fat-bike for this winter and although I still ride the rigid one, the beatings I was taking on body parts that don't function that well anymore was one of the reasons I got the supplementary ride and it seems to be doing well in this regard. I do quite a bit of racing, but I full stop cannot ride a hardtail in the summer, it's just too much of a beating on terrain/bumps. There are races that obviously favor a hardtail for power transfer, but I just can't take the pounding. I tried about 7 years ago or so, I ran a hardtail for the racing season...I think the year before I ran the same bike rigid in the summer too. Hard nope. I have significant ankle issues and some knee issues.

On the other hand, there are sometimes things that you can't overcome, I had to get surgery on one of my ankles to "fix" the issue, the fix doesn't bring it back to 100% pre-injury level, but it's still a huge jump in quality of life. I couldn't go on riding (or walking) with that injury.

I think this ebike helped me quite a bit. Today I have minor discomfort all over my body but it's nothing like it was a year ago on my hardtail. I actually rode around 5-6mph the whole time. Back in the day, I averaged 6-7mph on my regular bikes while riding through my local park. I've dialed back so much. I'm actually enjoying the ride despite my slower speeds. I don't bother shredding the hard lines. I just run laps and stay within my means. Climbing is still a minor chore even with a slight boost in assistance but my knees don't hurt any more. I have to sit on my saddle much more than before. I'm used to riding attack stance everywhere but those days are gone and I need to run attack stance as needed. I see no need to run full power on this bike and go max speed all over the park.

OH I realized that my bike has 3 bars instead of 4. If I run 1 bar, my bike feels like a normal mountain bike. If I run 2 bars, I get a slight boost and takes pressure off my knees and body. If I run 3 bars of power, I just feel lazy and the bike is taking me for a ride rather than the other way around. I stuck with 2 bars yesterday just to get a feel for it. One thing I love is that my HR is a bit lower than before. I damn near hit my max HR (180) when I rode my regular bikes and ended up going into anaerobic state quite frequently. At least I'm capping out in the 160s.

The locals were cool with my ebike on the trail. I actually saw a family who all rode Levos on my local trails too. When I was stuck behind a climber, I actually dropped my power down to 1 and stayed behind them. I didn't want to pass them unless they were willing to let me go by.